A murder-suicide in Beaconwood Village Thursday morning leaves three parentless children and a neighbourhood looking for answers.

Police and paramedics were called to a townhouse at 2022 Beaconwood Dr. in a Minto-run rental neighbourhood Thursday around 6:30 a.m. after 16-year-old Ben Mender discovered his parents’ bodies in the family home. His mother was stabbed to death and the person responsible, his father, was found hanging.

Homicide detectives continue to investigate the deaths but are not looking for any additional suspects.

Ben was in his bedroom when his father Yassin Mender, 60, began the attack against his youngest son. The teen, after a struggle in which he was cut, managed to lock his father out of his room. He remained in his room for about an hour only to emerge to find the body of his mother, 51, in the basement. She had been stabbed in the back several times. Yassin Mender had hanged himself while his son was locked away in his bedroom.

The couple have two other children — daughter Tesnella Mender, who neighbours say wasn’t living at the home but visited frequently, and son Saeyob Mender, who studied at Carleton University and was an avid runner.

Their father gushed about his children and how much they loved Ashbury College, an Ottawa private school, in an advertorial that ran in the Citizen in May 2013.

“Our children love Ashbury and they have enjoyed every moment of their time in the school.”

The now-adult children and their parents ran in a two-kilometre race together as part of the National Capital Marathon in 2002. Their times, all just slightly over 21-minutes, suggest they ran in a pack.

Yassin Mender received a graduate diploma in public policy and program evaluation from Carleton University in Winter 2014. He did not have a criminal record.

Police have been called to the home before but the couple was not known to the partner assault unit, which investigates incidents of domestic violence.

“It’s horrible but you can’t do anything about it,” said one shaken neighbour as police remained on the scene Thursday afternoon.

Amanda Martel, the Menders’ next-door neighbour, said she often waved to the couple and saw the woman when they both took OC Transpo together. Martell had moved into her unit with her boyfriend in March so hadn’t lived in the neighbourhood very long.

“I don’t know why (this happened),” she said.

The woman’s death is the seventh homicide of the year. Police have notified next of kin but are not officially releasing the names of the couple until after their autopsies are complete.

The case comes one week after 23-year-old Tausif Chowdhury’s badly beaten body was found on a footpath in southeast Ottawa. Investigators continue to probe the circumstances around his killing but have not publicly identified any suspects.

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